Katherine Boehret
Columnist
Katherine A. (Katie) Boehret is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, where she has worked since 2002 in the office of columnist Walt Mossberg. She writes the weekly Mossberg Solution column, a review of consumer technology that appears every Wednesday.
In 2004, and again in 2007, she was honored as one of the 30 most promising young business journalists by Newsbios.com.
Ms. Boehret is a graduate of the University of Delaware.
Ethics Statement
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
I am not an objective news reporter, and am not responsible for business coverage of technology companies. I am a subjective opinion columnist, a reviewer of consumer technology products and a commentator on technology issues. I don't offer investment advice, or follow the financial progress or stock prices of technology companies. I focus on products and services, not revenues and earnings.
I work for Walt Mossberg, who oversees my column, and we coordinate the topics and reviews between our columns.
I don't accept any money, or anything else of value, from the companies whose products I cover, or from their public relations or advertising agencies. I also don't accept trips, speaking fees, or product discounts from companies whose products I cover, or from their public relations or advertising agencies. I don't serve as a consultant to any companies, or serve on any corporate boards or advisory boards.
I don't own a single share of stock in any of the companies whose products I cover, or any shares in technology-oriented mutual funds.
I also have a 401K plan and, like many 401K plans, the holdings of the funds it includes are managed without my guidance. My plan includes no technology-specific funds or indexes, although it might from time to time include technology stocks.
The products I review are typically lent to me by their manufacturers for a few weeks or months. I return any products I am lent for review, except for items of minor value that companies typically don’t want back, such as computer mice or inexpensive software. In the case of these items, I either discard them or give them away to charity. For a few years, we gave away these cheaper products to other employees at the Journal, in return for donations of canned foods, which we then gave to food banks. But this was too much of a hassle, so we've stopped doing that.
Companies often visit my office to brief me in advance on new products, Web sites, or software. I don't review all of these products, and, when I do, I don't always review them favorably. I test every product I review, never basing a review on just a demo or a press release. If I do decide to review a product, I sometimes negotiate with a company the timing of the review, but never its outcome.
If I want a product I review for my own use, I buy it, at normal prices, or the Journal does. For instance, my personal and work computers, my digital media players, digital camera, and cell phone, were all purchased this way, as are my Internet service, cell phone service, and cable TV service.
I never coordinate my reviews with our advertising sales staff, and don’t solicit or sell ads for the newspaper or Web site. The Journal's separate ad sales staff does this. Advertisers and companies whose products I cover don’t get to see my columns in advance, or to select or reject column topics.
I have written negative reviews of products from companies which advertise in this newspaper, its Web site or this Web site, as well as positive reviews of companies that aren't advertisers or sponsors. There has never been a single instance where any editor or official of the Journal or Dow Jones has complained about this, or tried to change a column to favor an advertiser or potential advertiser.
Beyond these policies, I also abide by the Dow Jones Code of Conduct, which can be found here.
